circumstances or factors that produce the negative thoughts and
feelings about what you are doing.
This manual is not concerned with the technical or "content" side
of your work; it is concerned with you as a communicator. It is about
ways in which you can get your technical knowledge across to
farmers as effectively as possible. It is about the crucial communi-
cation or social skills of extension: your relationships with farmers,
your ability to achieve a rapport with them and to help them with
their care of crops and livestock.
So let us consider the actual competencies that are involved in the
communication of your technical information.
But, first, it might be helpful to give an example from another field
of activity. If I make a list of the competencies involved in being a
writer, it comes out like this-and you might find some parallels
with your own situation:
 1. Knowledge of a particular language: its
 grammatical structures and vocabulary.
 2. Knowledge of certain subjects, upon which the
 writing is based.
 3. Knowledge of publication channels: what particular
 newspapers, journals or other agencies expect, in
 terms of subject matter and presentation.
 4. Skill in researching for relevant information: from
 observing, interviewing or reading.
 5. Skill in selecting the most relevant material for a
 particular occasion.
 6. Skill in organizing that material to form a logical
 sequence of ideas.
 7. Skill in choosing an appropriate vocabulary for
 particular readers.
 8. Skill in using stylistic devices, like paragraphing or
 punctuation, to make the writing both clear and
 emphatic.
 9. Skill in using illustrations or examples, to make
 the writing concrete and lively.
 10. Ability to review what has been written in a self-
 critical way, in order to revise and modify it.